Just got The Best of Guided By Voices in the mail

If there's anything wrong with the Best Of, it's the fact that the two Tobin Sprout songs shouldn't be there. Bob was too kind to include them. "14 Cheerleader Coldfront" should have been replaced with "Weed King," and "To Remake The Young Flyer" should have been "Don't Stop Now" instead.

It's about time they made a best of, because compilations are the best way to get into GBV's music.

Really, the only Sprout GBV song that I really love is "Awful Bliss."

Though "Awful Bliss" is great. Another contender.

but is there actually an audience for a best-of-gbv? i mean, is there a single person who still cares about gbv who doesn't own every album? and is there a single non-fan who's going to go "ooh, it's got 'teenage fbi'!'" and pick it up and buy it?

Any GBV best of, even with 32 songs, is bound to leave off many favorites so if you're gonna say they should have included "Weedking" then why not "Do the Earth" or "Brides Have Hit Glass" or "Big Boring Wedding", etc...

Also, I agree with Ott that "Alien Lanes"is a much superior listen, but I see where you're coming from Matt that the Best Of makes a nice intro to all eras of GBV.

To clarify...OTM as in 14 Cheerleader Coldfront is the shit.
But hey, they SHOULD have included Weedking.
Hmmm...anyone got the tracklist, btw?

1. A Salty Salute
2. Things I Will Keep (courtesy of TVT Records)
3. Everywhere With Helicopter
4. I Am A Tree
5. My Kind Of Soldier
6. 14 Cheerleader Coldfront (courtesy of Scat Records)
7. Twilight Campfighter (courtesy of TVT Records)
8. Echos Myron (courtesy of Scat Records)
9. Learning To Hunt
10. Bulldog Skin
11. Captain's Dead (courtesy of Scat Records)
12. Tractor Rape Chain (courtesy of Scat Records)
13. Game Of Pricks - SINGLE VERSION
14. To Remake The Young Flyer
15. Hit
16. Glad Girls (courtesy of TVT Records)
17. Drinker's Peace (courtesy of Scat Records)
18. Surgical Focus (courtesy of TVT Records)
19. Cut-Out Witch
20. The Best Of Jill Hives
21. Hot Freaks (courtesy of Scat Records)
22. Shocker In Gloomtown (courtesy of Scat Records)
23. Chasing Heather Crazy (courtesy of TVT Records)
24. My Valuable Hunting Knife - ALBUM VERSION
25. The Official Ironmen Rally Song
26. Non-Absorbing (courtesy of Scat Records)
27. Motor Away - SINGLE VERSION
28. Teenage FBI - DEMO VERSION
29. Watch Me Jumpstart
30. Exit Flagger (courtesy of Scat Records)
31. Back To The Lake
32. I Am A Scientist - ALBUM VERSION (courtesy of Scat Records)

Yeah, any GBV best of is flawed because there's just too many great songs and only so much space.

however...

if they actually want to be accessible, why put the best song they have ever done at the END of a 32-track disc? why have their other absolutely killer pop moments at #8, #13, #16, #24, #27, etc? who actually listens to track 24, never mind track 32, on ANY disc?

this is a great souvenir for fans and their friends. and as far as the rest of the world is concerned, it will look just as overwhelming and in need of an editor as the rest of their catalog.

But as a primer for GBV, this running order makes a lot of sense, because it is introducing the listener to the band's aesthetic just as much as its songs - it's really long, it has a few oddball tracks, one song which is under 30 seconds, a few songs which are extremely lo-fi, a few others which are very hi-fi, it scatters the most obvious songs around. It gives the listener an idea of what to expect of the other albums, you know?

(and "Dodging Invisible Rays" is def. my favorite Tobin song)

But that's really only a small portion of their overall aesthetic. If you gave them those two albums, you'd only be giving them the collage-y, lo-fi GBV, and that's just a small piece of the big picture. You'd just be exposing the person to the two canonized records and omitting a lot of great pop songs which they may enjoy because you're embracing the most narrow and lazy idea of who they are and what Bob Pollard does.

au contraire, i'd say i'm just recognizing that they, like nearly every band ever, had a creative peak, and those two albums were it. if i were introducing someone to the who, i wouldn't give them a greatest hits album that included, say, "athena" and "another tricky day," and if i were introducing someone to gbv, i'd see no reason to play them anything from the mediocre indie rock records they've been producing for the last several years.

plus...i really don't think gbv's aesthetic has changed over the years. they've switched bandmembers and studios, but that's really about it. except for the fact that it's a lot worse, i don't hear any difference at all between "earthquake glue" and any of the "canonized" albums.

but then again, i think "non-absorbing" is far and away the best track on "vampire on titus," so what do i know?

have you all seen the new-ish GBV database www.gbvdb.com? if ever a band needed a DATABASE...

Was very confused as to why someone was selling this from the copy in their ipod. Took me a 15 good long seconds when I saw it down the GBV items list:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Best-Guided-Voices-Human-Amusements-Ho-/250696037470?pt=Music_CDs&hash=item3a5ea5f45e#ht_500wt_1154

good long 15*

I guess

The Best of Jill Hives is prob my fave GBV song, and it debuted here, I recall.